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The Wandering Rose is a travel/immigration themed website created in 2012 by student expat Lindsey Wellstead. Its purpose is to enlighten and aspire readers through personal stories of travel and to bring awareness to the (young) immigrant experience – an unexplored niche and topic that is all too often neglected.

Readers are diverse in age and location, and gender orientation is largely equal (although lightly skewed in preference by females). Outreach is loyal and growing.

I hope you get this…I got your email address from your blog so I guess it should be the right one……

Anyway, sorry for bothering you but you seemed like a good brain to pick…….I’m writing to see if you can gve me some advice/put me in touch with the right people.
My 15 year old ( 16 in October) wants to come and study in Canada for 3 months in the academic year 2014/2015 (when he’ll be 17) . Here in Italy (and I guess worldwide) there is an association called Intercultura which orgnaizes these placements all over the world lasting from three months to one year – but of course it all comes at a cost (3 months in Canada depending on family income costs from between €3800 to €9500 (roughly) -and to be considered, Leo would have to apply by this coming November (which is why I am trying to find out other alternatives before that date).
Unfortunately, for the three month saty in Canada there are only 2 places available so I am trying to look into other options. The Italian school system will let you ‘leave’ it for a certain period if you are enrolled into another school in another country but, as an independant (ie not part of an association like Intercultura) I have no idea how that process would work. Having read your blog, I seem to think you are involved in your kids’ schools – could you by any chance let me know a name/email address/phone no. etc of anyone I might contact in a high school who could give me some info…..basically I am trying to fnd out ;
– can an independant person enrol at a Canadian High School for a limted time (3 months)
– if so, how do you go about it (what official channels do you need to go down etc)
– what cost would be involved

Like I said, I am interested in being in direct contact with a school about all this so that if we find out that ‘going it alone’ is not an option, he is still in time to apply to Intercultura in November.

Thanks very much for your time – I really hope you don’t mind me having contacted you :)

Hello Kathryn, sorry for the slow reply!
I’m not particularly knowledgeable about intercultura or international high school placements but I will direct you towards some people who should be. I have a few phone numbers and emails for you that might be a good place to start. The information below is for two high schools in my town whose staff can hopefully give you a few pointers and tips on the possibility of independent, time-limited enrollment. St. Thomas Aquinas is the local Catholic school and T.A. Blakelock was my own:

T.A. Blakelock High School 905-827-1158
St. Thomas Aquinas 905-842-9494 STA@hcdsb.org
To call from Italy, the code proceeding the above phone numbers is 001.

Of course with such a large country and boundless available high schools to choose from, the options for placement are not limited to the two schools above. Hopefully they can set you on the right path and from there, you and your son can choose the right school for you.

I wish you both the best of luck and hope that Leo will be enjoying himself in Canada very soon. Studying abroad is such a wonderful opportunity, I’m quite envious! Let me know if you need any more help and I’ll see what I can do.
– Lindsey :)